So you're coming into The Exiled with no idea what the heck is going on, right?. What's leather? What does the different colored powered dust (Pigments) do? Why is everyone killing me? How do I survive?

Those may be some of your questions. No worries. I'm here to help. I was like you at one point and it took me a few days to put things together for myself how this game works and what does what and how.

Preamble

This won't be a long guide, just the basics to get you on your way and exploring the game and it's contents. Let me give a decent preamble first. A word of warning so to speak, unlike other survival games....(and like MANY survival games...) Going solo is going to be an UPHILL battle for the entire time you're on your chosen server. This game very much caters to those IN a clan as to those who aren't. Not saying you can't go around solo ganking and having a good time but if you want to do more of the end game content. You will need to be in a clan to experience sieges and to actually survive any kind of hunting party that comes for you. So yes, you can 1v1 or 1v2 maybe even 1v3 but beyond that, it will get tougher and tougher. Having your own settlement will be almost impossible to hold alone as building one requires A LOT of resources and forget about holding it if you're sieged vs a larger clan, you'll need to be content living in the wild or neutral towns. That does not mean you have to join the first Zerg Guild that kills you over and over around the Newbie town. (IT WILL HAPPEN) but it's not a bad idea to say yes, take whatever free crap you can get, get past their area of influence and drop ranks and run, find another group or whatever you'd like. Or stay with them. Your call.

OKAY! Onto the meat of the guide.

What is going on? The tutorial is confusing.

So the tutorial will give you a pretty good idea on the very VERY basics of the game. It will ask you about your starting playstyle. There is NOTHING wrong with saying you want to be friendly, looking for a clan or anything else, etc. Other words, there are no buffs or debuffs to those options and they can be removed anytime. This just helps other plays identify right away if you're new or not. As you progress through there are different weapons and different armors you can wear that provide different abilities. Don't rush through this, take your time to try them all out, learn all the beginner combos available. You can go back and forth between the areas of the tutorial with no penalty to switch and swap. I would highly recommend as a new player learning the game going with Spear and Shield and Leather or Mail. I prefer Leather armor for it's life steal ability which helps in PvP or PvE and it's sprint ability, also useful in getting away from people trying to kill you in a pinch. The SS combo also provides nice stunning/offensive/ranged combos but very decent DPS for meleeing as well. The long range of the Spear is nice for kiting mobs/players around as well (except against ranged or other spear users).

All players also start with the SAME stats in terms of health, energy, etc. Weapons and Armors determine what kind of bonuses or penalties you get to your stats. People in Robes have a much higher Run Speed than those in Leather or Mail because of the stats that armor provides but they won't have nearly as much Health or Physical Resistance as those in Leather or Mail. Review all the attributes each weapon/armor provides to bring yourself to your preferred playstyle. Remember, it's not permanent. You can always craft the other weapons/armors later.

Again, take your time going through everything before deciding on your kit, once you leave, you're stuck with it until you earn resources to switch.

I'm the ultimate fighter, I'm killing everyone and I'm picking up EVERYTHING. What do all these items do?

To be as short and to the point as possible.

Pigments will help you level your skills. For example. Black pigment is needed to level your Spear and Shield skills. White will be needed to level your leather armor skills. The map (M by default) will show you the world map, on the left there is a tickbox where you can click PIGMENTS and it will show you all the zones that drop the pigment you are looking for. This goes for resources and reagents as well.

Resources, such as wood, hemp, leather, etc, are needed to build settlements or open up new areas. It's also valuable for you to level up your weapon and armor DIRECTLY. Basically you start with a default weapon and armor when you leave the tutorial but if you view your character screen (C by default) you'll see that your weapon and armor slots are empty. Think of it this way. Your default items are considered -1 tier. As you level up you unlock the ability to craft higher tier weapons automatically going from +0 all the way to +9. The higher the tier, the more resources it requires to craft. You will want to craft your +0 weapon and armor ASAP. The basic item stats given even at this level are a good boost to your ability to survive and farm mobs in PvE. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ADJUSTING STATS AT THIS POINT. JUST FARM WHAT YOU NEED AND CRAFT IT.

Reagents come in a variety of names that usually end in TAL. These are necessary to adjust the stats on your weapons and armor that you craft. Want to add more health? You're going to need Blood of TAL. But remember, it's a give and take system. If you want to add more HEALTH to an item, you need to remove points from another stat (which costs nothing to do). So if you want to play a super tanky, hard to kill mother chicken. You could remove all stats from everything and dump them into physical/mental resistance and health but at the cost of being able to move as quickly as other players or use your abilities as often. Play around with it once you get a better grasp of the game and how the stats work.

Because I'm so awesome, everybody wants to be my friend. Sometimes my friends aren't friends with my other friends. Sometimes I just want to kill everyone. What should I do?

Joining a Clan is purely up to you. As I mentioned before, if you really want to get into the true late game content of the game. You will need to be in a Clan to fully realize this. Now I may be wrong here but based on my time learning the game. I had much more fun playing with others than playing with myself. (By myself?) Don't be afraid to live the bachelor life either. There is plenty of enjoyment of being hired out as a bounty hunter or to act as a 3rd party.... "enforcer" from one Clan on another Clan without the latter knowing who sent you and why you keep killing their Caravans/Them. The world is your oyster, it's what you make of it.

What are all these dead animals, crash sites on my map mean? What's a jail camp or whatever.

So basically, fallen pack animals/meteors spawn randomly everywhere on the map and you have to capture and hold these points for 5 minutes in order to obtain their resources. (Wood, Leather, etc) When you activate them (using spacebar) you have to generally fight off random creatures. It's very easy and a very reliable way to obtain resources. Until at less than 5 seconds left on the timer a group of jerks come through, slaughter you and claim the site for themselves. That could happen. Generally though you're able to collect your spoils after 5 minutes and be on your way.

The Revenant or Jailer camps are where you will farm your reagents and/or pigments. Generally farming Mobs is very easy to do. Unless there happens to be other players doing exactly what you're trying to do. This is where things get tricky. If you run into a Clan that is actively farming that area, you could very easily find yourself facing off against multiple opponents AND the angry mobs roaming the area. Choose your fights carefully and always scout the area. There is usually enough bush around a site to recon the area before committing to a gank or farming.

That's pretty much the highlights, I won't ruin the rest of the game for you! Now get in there and have fun!